Improvement in registering-machines



A. o. HOFFMAN.

Registering Machines.

Patented June 2,1874.

5 nvemirrwm gwwl UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AUSTIN D. HOFFMAN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF T\VO-TIIIRDS HIS RIGHT TO CARLOS A. COOK AND CHARLES E. COBURN, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT lN REGISTERING-MACHINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 151,489, dated June 2, 1874; application filed March 18, 1874.

To an whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AUSTIN D. HOFFMAN, of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented an Improvement in Printers Registers, of which the following is a specification Thepresent invention relates to a counting or registering device which is to'be attached to a printing-press to register the number of copies printed and its nature consists in the OlllpIOylllQ/llb of a series of carrying arms, pivoted eceentrically to the pins or posts of the ratchet-wheels, and provided with wrists, which run in notches in the ratchet-wheels, that the arms may be held in position to rotate their respective wheels, and at the same time be drawn in past the peripheries of the wheels, and thus be out of the way of the other arms.

The faces of the wheels are provided with figures, and when turned on their respective pins or posts the figures are exposed to. view.

I know that adders, counters, or registers have been constructed so that one wheel will turn another, and register units, tens, hundreds, &c.; therefore, I do not claim numbering by a series of wheels carrying figures, but confine myself to the devices for operating the wheels, as hereinafter shown and described.

In the drawing, Figure I is an inside view of the face-plate, ratchet-wheels, and eccentric arms Fig. 2, a view of the opposite side of the face-plate, showing the holes therein for exposing to view the figures of the wheels. Fig. 3 represents the notch in the wheel for the eccentric arm to slide in. Fig. 4 represents the wrists ot' the arm sliding in the slot of the wheel.

A represents a face-plate, which is provided with pins or posts I, of lengths corresponding to the thicknesses of the wheels 13 C D E, and a series of holes, K, OOII'OSDOlldlIlg to the number of wheels. The several wheels are provided with ten ratcliets, as shown, and with central holes, through which the pins or posts I pass, and they are respectively provided on their faces adjoining the plate A with the ures 1 2 3 4 5 (5 7 8 9 0. A levenarm, G,is provided with a spring, S, which passes through it and into a slot, N, at L. This arrangement is such that when the arm Gr brought down, as indicated by dart X, the end Z will turn the wheel B far enough to expose the next figure on its face to view in its respective hole on its face-plate. When wheel B is completing its revolution its eccentric arm turns the wheel C far enough to expose the next figure on its face to view through its respective hole. The operation is continued until all the wheels are turned.

The arrangement, as shown, will count ninety-nine thousand ninehundred and ninety nine.

The arms I, being pivoted eccentrically on the pins or posts I, extend outwardly at the proper place to turn the proper wheel; but when they are brought to the opposite side of the wheel they are drawn in to clear the wheel first turned.

To hold the eccentric arms F in place, and. to carry them round, notches a, Fig. 3, are formed in the teeth of the wheels, and nibs I), Fig. 4, are formed on the outer ends of the said arms to run in the groove 0,- the latter being longer than the wrist allows the wheels to turn without binding.

No particular instruction is required to put the device into use, the plates A being fast ened to any part of a press, or other niecln anism requiring a register, so that the leverarm (1' will have given to it a sutlicientreciprocatin g motion to turn the wheel B.

I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent- The carrying-arms I, provided with nibs b, and pivoted eccentrically on the fixed pins I, in combination with the ratchet-wheels, hav ing slots a, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

AUSTIN D. HOFFMAN,

Witnesses:

G. L. OHAriN, J. H. ELLIo'r'r. 

